Day labor center gets 1-year reprieve

At least for another year, day laborers can still seek work at the city’s designated center in Laguna Canyon.

The state Department of Transportation agreed on Monday to lease the state-owned parcel to the city for 12 months. Caltrans had determined that the parcel is not needed for state transportation purposes.

“Both Caltrans and the city believe [the lease] is a pragmatic solution, at least in the short term,” City Manager Ken Frank said Tuesday.

Frank’s announcement of the lease during a City Council meeting was greeted with applause and boos from an audience of about 100, more than half of whom advocated closing the center.

The job center, targeted by opponents as a magnet for illegal immigrants, has been in operation since the city passed an ordinance in 1993 endorsed by residents that restricted day-labor hiring to a canyon location.

“The site encourages illegal immigration,” Laguna Beach resident George Riviere said. “I am sick and tired of being attacked as a racist. This is about the law.”

Riviere was among seven speakers who urged the council to close down the site and not relocate it.

Tim Ronses, whose wife runs the Day Labor Center for the local Cross Cultural Council was one of nine speakers who pleaded for the city’s continued support for the center.

“I am a citizen raising five kids,” Ronses said. “The system worked for me. God Bless America.”

Caltrans spokeswoman Pam Gorniak said the state agreed with the city on the lease option as a temporary response to safety concerns for the traveling public should the site be immediately closed.

“They are concerned about continued unsupervised solicitation if the city pulls out,” Frank said.

It was unsupervised solicitation on residential neighborhood street corners in the early 1990s ? primarily in North Laguna ? that prompted the council to designate the site in Laguna Canyon as the city’s sole location for day-labor hiring.

“If you lived in town and drove up near Viejo Street, you could testify to the large crowd of day laborers who gathered there,” said Capt. Paul Workman, 30-year veteran of the police department.

“Swarming” was the biggest problem, Workman said. Job seekers would swarm any vehicle whose driver stopped near the corner. The crowds often spilled out into the street. Other problems included sanitation and the sizes of the crowds.

The council responded to the requests of its constituents when it moved the day laborers into the canyon, Schneider-Pearson said.

“The council outlawed solicitation in road rights-of-way except in the one area of the canyon,” Frank said.

Other cities that had passed blanket anti-solicitation laws had been sued for infringement of Constitutional rights, but so far the city has avoided that.

The canyon job center was improved over the years. Fences were built. Port-a-potties and benches were installed. But swarming continued until the city contracted with the Cross Cultural Council to manage the center in a manner that was safe for the workers and the employers, Frank said.

Then about two weeks ago, Caltrans ? responding to an inquiry from a citizen ? notified the city that the center was operating on state-owned land without a permit. Caltrans gave city officials 24 hours to respond with a plan for vacating the property, but set no deadline.

“We told them we would look at other sites and consider buying the property,” Frank said. “The lease is a temporary measure to consider a permanent solution.”

A purchase of state land would require a complex set of clearances, such as a traffic study, that will take time to determine, Gorniak said.

“The city is working in good faith with the state on this and I appreciate that,” Gorniak said.

Deputy City Atty. Hans Van Ligten advised the council that providing the location does not violate the federal immigration act. The city does not have the right to determine whether everyone who benefits from the center is legally entitled to work in the U.S., Van Ligten said.

“What people don’t realize is that the same laws that protect the citizens, protect the day laborers,” Workman said.

Outside the council chambers, some dozen opponents of the hiring center marched and chanted.

Larry Culbertson, of Laguna Beach, marched outside the council chambers with a placard calling for border enforcement.

Workman said the day labor site rarely poses a problem for police.

Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman’s accounting business used to overlook the North Laguna corner where job seekers congregated and she is glad they were moved.

“What we saw wasn’t pretty,” she said. “There were fights, urination, sleeping in the bushes. My husband called immigration and they told us they knew about the problem and don’t call.

“It is much safer for our residents now.”